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SOCCER: REPUBLIC OF IRELAND v FRANCE: AT THIS stage, it’s beginning to border on being impolite, but there has been further evidence from the French media over the past couple of days that it’s not Richard Dunne or Kevin Doyle who they see as the most potent threat to their chances of being at next summer’s World Cup but rather their own coach, Raymond Domenech.

Cranking up things a little in the newspaper’s simmering feud with the 57-year-old, L’Équiperan two related page headlines in its most recent issues. In the first, over a picture of the manager walking past Irish players, the headline read: “Their good luck . . . him!” Then, yesterday, they ran with a picture of Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka and the words: “Our good luck . . . them!”